Atomic Accidents: A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters; From the Ozark Mountains to Fukushima

From the moment radiation was discovered in the late nineteenth century, nuclear science has had a rich history of innovative scientific exploration and discovery, coupled with mistakes, accidents, and downright disasters.

Atomic Adventures: Secret Islands, Forgotten N-Rays, and Isotopic Murder - A Journey into the Wild World of Nuclear Science

Whether you are a scientist or a poet, pro-nuclear energy or staunch opponent, conspiracy theorist or pragmatist, James Mahaffey's books have served to open up the world of nuclear science like never before. With clear explanations of some of the most complex scientific endeavors in history, Mahaffey's new book looks back at the atom's wild, secretive past and then toward its potentially bright future.

Fukushima: The Story of a Nuclear Disaster

On March 11, 2011, an earthquake large enough to knock the earth from its axis sent a massive tsunami speeding toward the Japanese coast and the aging and vulnerable Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power reactors. Over the following weeks, the world watched in horror as a natural disaster became a man-made catastrophe: fail-safes failed, cooling systems shut down, nuclear rods melted.

Into the Black

On 12th April 1981 a revolutionary new spacecraft blasted off from Florida on her maiden flight. NASA's Space Shuttle
Columbia was the most advanced flying machine ever built - the high watermark of post-war aviation development. A direct descendant of the record-breaking X-planes the likes of which Chuck Yeager had tested in the skies over the Mojave Desert,
Columbia was a winged rocket plane, the size of an airliner, capable of flying to space and back before being made ready to fly again.

Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond

Gene Kranz was present at the creation of America's manned space program and was a key player in it for three decades. As a flight director in NASA's Mission Control, Kranz witnessed firsthand the making of history. He participated in the space program from the early days of the Mercury program to the last Apollo mission, and beyond. He endured the disastrous first years when rockets blew up and the United States seemed to fall further behind the Soviet Union in the space race.

Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage

No espionage missions have been kept more secret than those involving American submarines. Now,
Blind Man's Bluff shows for the first time how the navy sent submarines wired with self-destruct charges into the heart of Soviet seas to tap crucial underwater telephone cables. It unveils how the navy's own negligence might have been responsible for the loss of the USS
Scorpion, a submarine that disappeared, all hands lost, 30 years ago.

Vulcan Boys: From the Cold War to the Falklands: True Tales of the Iconic Delta V Bomber

The Vulcan, the second of the three V bombers built to guard the UK during the Cold War, has become an aviation icon like the Spitfire, its delta shape instantly recognizable, as is the howling noise it makes when the engines are opened for takeoff.
Vulcan Boys is the first Vulcan book recounted completely firsthand by the operators themselves.

The Doomsday Machine

The Doomsday Machine is Ellsberg's hair-raising insider's account of the most dangerous arms buildup in the history of civilization, whose legacy - and renewal under the Obama administration - threatens the very survival of humanity. It is scarcely possible to estimate the true dangers of our present nuclear policies without penetrating the secret realities of the nuclear strategy of the late Eisenhower and early Kennedy years, when Ellsberg had high-level access to them.

Command and Control

A ground-breaking account of accidents, near-misses, extraordinary heroism, and technological breakthroughs,
Command and Control explores the dilemma that has existed since the dawn of the nuclear age: how do you deploy weapons of mass destruction without being destroyed by them? Schlosser reveals that this question has never been resolved, and while other headlines dominate the news, nuclear weapons still pose a grave risk to mankind.

Fascinating Footnotes from History

Fascinating Footnotes From History details 100 of the quirkiest historical nuggets - eye-stretching stories that sound like fiction but are 100 percent fact. There is Hiroo Onoda, the lone Japanese soldier still fighting the Second World War in 1974; Agatha Christie, who mysteriously disappeared for 11 days in 1926; and Werner Franz, a cabin boy on the
Hindenburg who lived to tell the tale when it was engulfed in flames in 1937.

Atomic Awakening: A New Look at the History and Future of Nuclear Power

The American public's introduction to nuclear technology was manifested in destruction and death. With Hiroshima and the Cold War still ringing in our ears, our perception of all things nuclear is seen through the lens of weapons development. Nuclear power is full of mind-bending theories, deep secrets, and the misdirection of public consciousness - some deliberate, some accidental. The result of this fixation on bombs and fallout is that the development of a non-polluting, renewable energy source stands frozen in time.

A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts

Audie Award, History/Biography, 2016. On the night of July 20, 1969, our world changed forever when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. Based on in-depth interviews with 23 of the 24 moon voyagers, as well as those who struggled to get the program moving,
A Man on the Moon conveys every aspect of the Apollo missions with breathtaking immediacy and stunning detail.

Closely modeled on his NATO experience of war gaming future conflicts,
War with Russia is a chilling account of where we are heading if we fail to recognise the threat posed by the Russian president. Written by the recently retired Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe and endorsed by senior military figures, this audiobook shows how war with Russia could erupt, with the bloodiest and most appalling consequences, if the necessary steps are not taken urgently.

Hunting Hitler's Nukes: The Secret Race to Stop the Nazi Bomb

In the Spring of 1940, as Britain reeled from defeats on all fronts and America seemed frozen in isolation, one fear united the British and American leaders like no other: the Nazis had stolen a march on the Allies towards building the atomic bomb. So began the hunt for Hitler's nuclear weapons - nothing else came close in terms of priorities. It was to be the most secret war of those wars fought amongst the shadows. The highest stakes. The greatest odds.

The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy

During the Cold War, world superpowers amassed nuclear arsenals containing the explosive power of one million Hiroshimas. The Soviet Union secretly plotted to create the "Dead Hand," a system designed to launch an automatic retaliatory nuclear strike on the United States, and developed a fearsome biological warfare machine. President Ronald Reagan, hoping to awe the Soviets into submission, pushed hard for the creation of space-based missile defenses.

Thirteen: The Apollo Flight That Failed

"Houston, we've had a problem here." On the evening of April 13, 1970, the three astronauts aboard Apollo 13 were just hours from the third lunar landing in history. But as they soared through space, two hundred thousand miles from earth, an explosion badly damaged their spacecraft. With compromised engines and failing life-support systems, the crew was in incomparably grave danger.

Stalingrad

The battle for Stalingrad became the focus of Hitler and Stalin's determination to win the gruesome, vicious war on the eastern front. The citizens of Stalingrad endured unimaginable hardship; the battle, with fierce hand-to-hand fighting in each room of each building, was brutally destructive to both armies. But the eventual victory of the Red Army, and the failure of Hitler's Operation Barbarossa, was the first defeat of Hitler's territorial ambitions in Europe and the start of his decline.

Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, a country house called The Firs in Buckinghamshire was requisitioned by the War Office. Sentries were posted at the entrance gates, and barbed wire was strung around the perimeter fence. To local villagers it looked like a prison camp. But the truth was far more sinister. This rambling Edwardian mansion had become home to an eccentric band of scientists, inventors and bluestockings. Their task was to build devastating new weaponry that could be used against the Nazis.

Hitler's Soldiers: The German Army in the Third Reich

For decades after 1945, it was generally believed that the German army, professional and morally decent, had largely stood apart from the SS, Gestapo, and other corps of the Nazi machine. Ben Shepherd draws on a wealth of primary sources and recent scholarship to convey a much darker, more complex picture. For the first time, the German army is examined throughout the Second World War, across all combat theaters and occupied regions, and from multiple perspectives: its battle performance, social composition, relationship with the Nazi state, and involvement in war crimes and occupation.

Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

By January 1968, despite an influx of half a million American troops, the fighting in Vietnam seemed to be at a stalemate. Yet General William Westmoreland, commander of American forces, announced a new phase of the war in which "the end begins to come into view". The North Vietnamese had different ideas. In mid-1967, the leadership in Hanoi had started planning an offensive intended to win the war in a single stroke.

The Master of Auschwitz:: Memoirs of Rudolf Hoess, Kommandant SS

The first-hand account of the life, career, and the practices of horror at Auschwitz, written by Auschwitz Kommandant SS Rudolf Hoss as he awaited execution for his crimes. Including his psychological interviews at Nuremberg.

To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Changed the Modern World

To Rule the Waves tells the extraordinary story of how the British Royal Navy allowed one nation to rise to a level of power unprecedented in history. From the navy's beginnings under Henry VIII to the age of computer warfare and special ops, historian Arthur Herman tells the spellbinding tale of great battles at sea, heroic sailors, violent conflict, and personal tragedy - of the way one mighty institution forged a nation, an empire, and a new world.

Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany

The Nazis presented themselves as warriors against moral degeneracy. Yet, as Norman Ohler's gripping best seller reveals, the entire Third Reich was permeated with drugs: cocaine, heroin, morphine and, most of all, methamphetamines, or crystal meth, used by everyone from factory workers to housewives, and crucial to troops; resilience - even partly explaining German victory in 1940.

Flight 232: A Story of Disaster and Survival

As hundreds of rescue workers waited on the ground, United Airlines Flight 232 wallowed drunkenly over the bluffs northwest of Sioux City. The plane slammed onto the runway and burst into a vast fireball. The rescuers didn't move at first: nobody could possibly survive that crash. And then people began emerging from the summer corn that lined the runways. Miraculously, 184 of 296 passengers lived. No one has ever attempted the complete reconstruction of a crash of this magnitude.

Publisher's Summary

At 01:23:40 on April 26th 1986, Alexander Akimov pressed the emergency shutdown button at Chernobyl's fourth nuclear reactor. It was an act that forced the permanent evacuation of a city, killed thousands, and crippled the Soviet Union. The event spawned decades of conflicting, exaggerated, and inaccurate stories.

This book, the result of five years of research, presents an accessible but comprehensive account of what really happened - from the desperate fight to prevent a burning reactor core from irradiating eastern Europe, to the self-sacrifice of the heroic men who entered fields of radiation so strong that machines wouldn't work, to the surprising truth about the legendary "Chernobyl diver", all the way through to the USSR's final show-trial. The historical narrative is interwoven with a story of the author's own spontaneous journey to Ukraine's still-abandoned city of Pripyat and the wider Chernobyl Zone.

If you are interested in Chernobyl then this is certainly an interesting listen, but for me it was really spoiled by the terrible narration which I found really annoying, especially as the guy couldn't really pronounce Chernobyl! Repeatedly hearing cheer-knob-eel becomes pretty frustrating in the end.The description of the guys visit to the exclusion zone struck a chord with me as it turns out he visited just months after I was there myself the first time round, and its interesting to hear his take on things.It also brings together some interesting information and facts from other sources, but as the author states many books on the Chernobyl disaster contain the odd 'fact' which is not 100% accurate, I think this is also true of this book too, but it does not detract from what I found to be an otherwise good book.

Amazing book-every engineer should read it - especially if working in AI. It highlights both the technical and human causes of the disaster. It also presents the history factually with many different, often contradicting, sources.

A great look at this disaster mixed with knowledge you can only get by seeing the place first hand. The writer is unbiased and provides some chilling detail and insight. His passion is clear and keeps your attention.

I don't know what some people are on about when they review these books and go on about the person reading it rather than the book.I am glad I ignored all those folks, this book is very interesting and the delivery is excellent. a great story written by a guy who has done a lot of research.

This book is just right for those with an interest in the Chernobyl Disaster but do not have a very technical background. There is plenty of detail about what happened and how it happened but no too technical that it reads like a text book or a report. I like technical detail (I'm an engineer) and this was just right.

It also gives a good insight into the people involved in many different ways and juat how far the effects stretched.

The narrative is nice as it is from a point of view of someone who is not a nuclear engineer but wants to know what happened, like many readers I imagine.

Don't let some other reviews put you off about the narrator's tone of voice. I am super fussy about narrator's and have even stopped several books due to bad narrators alone... But this one is fine. It's not a novel so doesn't require getting into character or anything. It's clear and easy listening.

I think this should serve as an introduction to those considering Nuclear power, the money spent on decomissioning and cleaning up the mess far outweighs that of further developing storage for renewables.

I thoroughly enjoyed this title and would highly recommend to anyone who wants a better understanding of the actual events of the Chernobyl Power Station as they happened told in a well researched very accessible way. I was fascinated by the book and in fact also ended up getting the ebook which makes the research citations easier to follow.

The author is a very experienced urban explorer and his account of traveling to and photographing Pripyat was both entertaining and informative. Leatherbarrow does not claim to be a scientist or that this is a scientific overview of events but it is very well documented and allows those of us who have an interest in this area without a science background to gain a better understanding of the event.

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

Christopher

Pentwater, MI, United States

17/10/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Lost in his own navel"

What disappointed you about Chernobyl 01:23:40?

There is a great and tragic story to be told here. Pieces of it shine through, but they are tangled in a bewilderingly banal narrative of self that utterly distracts from the story.

What does Michael Page bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Michael Page valiantly struggled with shoddy material; I have no fault with his performance.

What character would you cut from Chernobyl 01:23:40?

The Author!

Any additional comments?

There is a grand tradition of using one's personal interaction with historical events as a lens for understanding the story and significance of those events. For an example of how this can be done in a way that enhances the story, see Norman Maclean's "Young Men and Fire," the story of the Mann Gulch fire that killed a smoke jumper team, as well as Norman Maclean's personal effort to come to understand that story. Maclean manages to weave these narrative threads into something greater than either would have been on their own.I think this is what Andrew Leatherbarrow sought to do, weaving the story of the Chernobyl disaster together with the story of how he came to be on a tour of the site, and how that affected him. Sadly, Leatherbarrow's personal narrative is self-indulgent, boring, and really does not touch on the events of April 26, 1986. Instead, we are treated to a series of regretful chapters about not being able to compose camera shots, being rude to Ukrainian workers, and pedestrian descriptions of what must have been a haunting panorama. We learn more about Leatherbarrow's angst than about Chernobyl.The chapters where he deals with the accident itself are incisive, interesting and filled with the sense of how inevitable some tragedy was. These are well enough written to rescue my rating from a one star. But, it is telling that, having fallen asleep for the last half an hour of the book, I did not feel the need to go back and listen again.Save your credits, this one's not a good buy.

18 of 20 people found this review helpful

Benjamin

Beloit, WI United States

21/03/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Modern Trip to Chernobyl Almost Ruins a Great Book"

First off: the author does a fantastic job of making the science and history come alive. The physics are easy enough for any high school grad, the people are fleshed out wonderfully, and the whole story is clear and interesting... Except he insists on breaking up there story by interspersing each chapter with a chapter describing his own trip to Chernobyl. I'm sorry, but it just goes on too long! I want to get back to the good parts, not hear about your traveling buddies! It would have been great as a single chapter to put the history in perspective, but it's just too much. Reader is consistently great though! Worth a listen, but if you find the modern chapters as frustrating as me, skip them. It's worth a listen even without them.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Brandy

Durham, NC, United States

10/11/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Maybe better as a physical copy"

I enjoyed the parts of this book that were about the actual events of Chernobyl. Very informative and interesting, but it doubles almost as a travelogue that I would probably have appreciated more with a tangible book. When the chapters switch from the past historical information over to the present-day author's journey, it frustrated me from a listening perspective. Definitely worth a read, but only worth half a listen. Good narration.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Amara

13/06/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"A Historical Account with An Unnecessary Travelogue"

So much potential! I was so excited for this book, I read everything I can about Chernobyl, but was so disappointed when half the book ended up being about the author's trip. It felt like I was trapped in a room with a friend who shows me an insanely long winded slideshow presentation of their latest vacation...in short, not the desired feeling from a historical novel. :(

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Pascal R.

27/05/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Good detail, quiet good physics"

I liked the book. Their are a whole lot of details in it regarding the accident, convering the before, the during and the after. I am nuclear engineer, I think it is safe to say that the physics the author uses to explain the accident is straight, simply explained, and correctly detailed (not too much, and not too few)The author seemed to have been young when he did his travel to Chernobyl, and did not seem to be an experienced traveler at the time. Hence, he shares his meaningless experiences about his trip that the reader quiet frankly does not care about (I remember for example 5 minutes of blaberring about how hard it is to shoot gun). but we are talking about here only 10 to 15% of the book.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Vicki

23/05/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Was Leatherbarrow getting paid by the word?"

What disappointed you about Chernobyl 01:23:40?

I do not care about Leatherbrow's insecurity about writing about the subject matter or his problem with coming up with cash to get to Chernobyl.

What could Andrew Leatherbarrow have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Removed the details of his life from it and talk about the subject matter.

What about Michael Page’s performance did you like?

That was ok.

What character would you cut from Chernobyl 01:23:40?

Details of Adam Leatherbrow's life.

Any additional comments?

Going to try to return it.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

Boom Depleter

18/05/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"A fantastic & thoughtful travelog/history hybrid"

What made the experience of listening to Chernobyl 01:23:40 the most enjoyable?

Too many to mention. I enjoyed this dang book so much. I loved the mixing of current conditions of the site and Leatherbarrow's observations as a traveller. The hindsight the author has, is never used as a blunt instrument to lecture the world about the perils of nuclear power. Though he mentions the benefits and risks, in the end he approaches both aspects thoughtfully and respectfully.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The author, meaning the person experiencing everything was my favorite character. I am a Reddit user too - so I really could imagine myself in his place and that was just one aspect of why I enjoyed the book so much.

Which scene was your favorite?

The exploration scene where the group encounters the much-photographed swimming pool, referencing it in Call of Duty, taking about how his pictures will look like everyone else's was one that stuck out but I also liked the part near the end when he discusses the illness & death rates among Chernobyl survivors.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Chernobyl 01:23:40 - A Modern Journey....or just let American Experience do the film and they'll pick an even more boring title and turn out the best documentary on the topic that you've ever seen.

Any additional comments?

The concept of putting all the pics online, referencing Reddit and some other modern touches give it a contemporary feel and a nice demonstration of technology meeting historical literature. Brilliant concepts. I'd read an Andrew Leatherbrrow travelog any day of the week. Also, I wish this book was 3 times longer and yet it was perfect the way it was. I hope this author keeps writing.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Linda S.

08/08/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"A whimsical tale of amateur photography."

A droning story of a photography trip to Chernobyl with an underwhelming history lesson mixed in.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

mrwswd

14/07/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Performed and laid out well"

This is a well written book that shifts between personal examples and travel to the Chernobyl area. It is a great look into the event from start to current status.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

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